Recipes, Photography, Musings

When nature delivers such juicy, sweet berries, we don’t need to add a lot of extra ingredients to make them shine. That’s the case for fresh, ripe strawberries, which are in season here right now. A quick and simple no-cook strawberry sauce over sour cream biscuits is an easy dessert to pull off, and a complete treat for the taste buds. Though this dessert is very similar to that all-time favorite strawberry shortcake, sometimes it’s fun to make individual biscuits instead of a shortcake. And it tastes really good for breakfast too!

I love this biscuit recipe because it uses sour cream to make the biscuits rich and fluffy. Though I enjoy biscuits made with butter, the sour cream ones seem lighter, and with only five ingredients, these biscuits come together in no time. I adapted the recipe from a beloved cookbook my cousin gave me, called “Autumn: From the Heart of the Home” by Susan Branch. I use this biscuit recipe all year round, and during strawberry season, the biscuits taste divine topped with strawberry sauce.

The strawberry sauce recipe is so easy, it can hardly be considered a recipe, yet it is helpful to have it written down somewhere for quick reference when you need it. It’s the way my mother always prepares strawberries for strawberry shortcake. With juicy, luscious strawberries, we don’t need to do a lot to them to enjoy them in all their glory. There is something so quintessentially ‘summer’ about strawberries, I just want to embrace them as much as possible! In fact, later on today, my kids and I are heading over to my mom’s house to make strawberry freezer jam. It is a tradition we try to keep every year, and then we can enjoy the taste of fresh strawberries all year long through the jam.

It feels like this summer took a long time to get here, but now that it’s here, everything is happening quickly. The cherries on our tart cherry tree are becoming almost ripe enough to pick, and the black raspberries on our bushes are almost there too. The days are long and bright, and I saw the first fireflies of the season two nights ago. The kids are out of school and loving it. Our screened-in porch has become my favorite room in the house, as it always does in the summer, and I want to eat out there as often as possible! We have had quite a heat wave this week, forcing us to adapt our lives around it. The mornings and evenings are the most comfortable times to be outside (or inside, for that matter), and I have a new appreciation for those more subtle times of day. And we have also made a couple quick trips to the lake, which means ‘summer’ to me like strawberries do. I hope you all have a great weekend, and enjoy all that June has to offer! I will be sharing this recipe at Fiesta Friday, co-hosted this week by Monika @ Everyday Healthy Recipes and Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook.

“Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly.” ~ Pablo Neruda

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Get out a baking sheet, and lightly flour a work surface. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the sour cream, and with your hands, mix the ingredients together just until a dough holds together. Don’t over- knead the dough, because the less you handle biscuit dough, the better. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter and press it down to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use a 2 inch biscuit cutter (or I use an overturned 2 inch glass) to cut out the biscuits. Place them on the baking sheet. Re-form the dough and flatten it out again until all the dough is cut into biscuit shapes. It should make 12 biscuits. Bake in your 450 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden. Enjoy!

For the strawberry sauce:

Ingredients:

2 quarts of fresh strawberries

1/2 cup of sugar (or to taste)

a squeeze of lemon juice

Directions:

Wash the strawberries and remove their stems. Put them in a large bowl and add the sugar. With a potato masher, mash the strawberries to your desired texture. (I like to leave them a bit chunky). Squeeze in a little bit of lemon juice (optional). Stir to combine, and pour over your favorite biscuits or shortcake! Enjoy!

The biscuit recipe is adapted from the cookbook “Autumn: From the Heart of the Home” by Susan Branch.

Pablo Neruda is one of my favorite poets! And June is probably my favorite month. And fireflies during strawberry season is like heaven to me and makes me feel most grateful to be alive. All of that comes through in this post. This sauce and these biscuits are a perfect celebration of all of it. I feel a little bit like I’m still waiting for the scene you invoke here. I felt a piece of it in early April, but when work rather than school dictates your schedule, summer is more when you make it than a season that changes your schedule. Luckily, I’ve got a little mini vacay planned soon! Enjoy!! xoxo

Thank you, Amanda! I like your way of describing summer as when you make it, because that is so true! In some ways, it is a state of mind rather than a period of time. I hope you have a great time on your mini vacay–you have earned some relaxing downtime! xoxo